Hi,

The other response here is a good start.  I also have an example in my book
(see below), and other information there might be of help.

--
Richard Grier
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Author of Visual Basic Programmer's Guide to Serial Communications.
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The barcode scanners alway can be set to add a <CR> after the msg.
e.g. It connected to your PC's COM2, the communication speed is 9600.
    A 'Comm' control named Serial2 placed in a form, property 'TThreshold'
is set to 1.
    Wirte code for Serial2_OnComm event:
    static barCode as string
    dim oneCode as string
    select case serial2.commevent
        case comEvReceive
            oneCode = serial2.input
            if asc(oneCode) = 13 then
                if barCode <> "" then
                    Process barCode
                    barCode = ""
                end if
            else
                barCode = barCode + oneCode
            end if
        case else
    end select

You can also write some code in a Timer's events